© Asymbol of things to come. A storage tank built by Louisiana-Pacific near its lumber remanufacturing plant on the Mexican Baja Peninsula, 60 miles south of San Diego. Canadians meet Mexicans to discuss trade deal by Jim Sinclair MEXICO CITY, MEXICO — Anhis- toric meeting of Mexican and Cana- dian labour leaders, church activists and social groups has given rise to a new binational coalition to fight free trade in both countries. In a joint declaration following the three day meeting in early October, the groups called for the establish- ment of “new measures for meeting the fundamental needs of our peoples and for sovereignty of our nations.” ‘The meeting marked the first time groups from both countries joined together to see acommon plan against the corporate agenda. More than 30 organizations from Canada and 50 organizations from Mexico were in attendance. While Canada has already signed a free trade deal with the U.S., Mexico is poised to sign a similar agreement within 12 months. Canada has announced it’ will come to the table to participate in the talks. For many Mexicans it was the first time they had heard of the serious impact the free trade agreement has had on Canadians and for the Canadi- ans, it was the first time they have understood the terrible poverty and repression which has come to typify life in Mexico. “It must be made very clear that neither Canadian or Mexican workers want divisive competition. We will not act as strikebreakers for anybody,” the declaration said. The program of action includes joint demonstrations, protests, infor- mation sharing and the creation of a binational commission to ensure soli- darity work continues between the two countries. Speaking on behalf of the Canadian delegates, Council of Canadians Chairperson Maude Barlow said the delegates have laid the basis for anew relationship between Mexico and Canada. “A relationship, not based on com- petition, exploitation and greed or a relationship that serves only the cor- porate interest of our common conti- nent,” she said, “but rather a relation- ship based on respect, friendship, and founded on the principles of peaceful co-existence, ecological stewardship and the rights of all people to estab- lish, as a sovereign right, the eco- nomic and social conditions of their lives.” Her sentiments were shared by Ontario Federation of Labour Presi- dent Gord Wilson, who said the con- ference helped forge alliances with people in the south in the same situa- tion that we are. 5 8/LUMBERWORKER/NOVEMBER, 1990 “J think it is important that we all understand that this whole game is about using workers as pawns on a chess board with the multinational corporations moving us around,” he said. Wilson called for a two-pronged attack against the corporate agenda which included stepping up the fight to tear up the Free Trade Agreement in Canada and pouring some resources into Mexican unions to fight the multinationals. Nuu Chah Nulth Tribal Council President George Watts said the con- ference provided an opportunity to learn about the situation in Mexico and take a strong message back to Canada. “We have to show real evidence that we are prepared to establish alterna- tives to free trade and corporate con- trol,” he said. “We have got to come forward with solid evidence that we are prepared to make their (Mexicans) lives better in an alternative way to trade. atts said if we win the battle at home to get out of the free trade agreement, then Canada could be free to form bilateral relations with Mex- ico to improve living conditions for rkers. Nea) Mexican union leaders told the conference that it remains almost impossible to organize a fight against free trade because of the repression against unions who do not support the government. _ : The Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) has come out in & favour of the free trade agreement and £ is a supporter of the government of = President Carlos Salinas. Mexico has been ruled by virtually idely tpg iter breakdown on i Bilajed fhe meuiee kore aa changed the outcome dit He said the Congress would be gp urging the CTM to ch: its pi tion supporting free trade wi United States. Jim Sinclair is an organizer United Fisherman an “Allied! Wook, ers Union. In early October he was part of a special celagiadiote of Cana- dian Trade Unionists and other activ- ists to take part in a conference in Mexico City examining the implica- tions of free trade in North America, CANADA © In early October representations from over 30 Canadian trade union and coalition organizations met to discuss the corporate agenda in Mexico City, Americans fear trade talks As IWA-CANADA president Jack Munro sounds the alarm bell against a Free Trade deal between Canada, U.S. and Mexico, our American cou- sins in the IWA are stepping up their battle against the deal. Since the fall of 1989, IWA workers in Northern California have been pro- testing against such a deal which they say will ruin wages and working conditions for American Woodwork- ers. “The Mexicans pose a threat to our standards in the workplace, ironically as our wages and working conditions in the U.S. pose a threat to Canadian standards through the CANADA-U.S. Free Trade Agreement,” says Bill Street, research director at the Inter- national Woodworkers of America National office in Gladstone, Oregon. Mr. Street says that IWA-CANADA is not being the least bit alarmist in taking a tough stance against the trade talks, which appear likely to Beein taking place in the Spring of 1991, The export of raw logs and unfin- ished lumber to Mexico causes special concern for American trade unionists. At present Louisiana-Pacific, a major US. based multi-national is shipping logs and lumber to it’s new remanu- facturing plant in Suarez, near the fishing port of El] Sauzal on the Baja California peninsula about 60 miles south of San Diego. The logs and lumber originate from private “fee lands” in California. In the Fall of 1989, the IWA and other groups raised a ruckus with the Cali- fornia legislature to limit the compa- ny’s access to state timber should they decide to export. Street says Louisiana-Pacific is now avoiding exports from state lands to avoid a “political black eye” but believes that once the company gets its Mexican facility as operational as it intends, that it will put up with the public heat and take a loss in access to state timber. Although the current raw material shipments to Mexico are “only a trickle’ Mr. Street says that if Louisiana-Pacific is successful in its Mexican venture, other major compa- nies like Weyerhaeuser, Georgia- Pacific and International Paper will likely examine the further feasibility of such operations. “We know that at the bargaining table we will hear about Mexico,” says Street, “Louisiana-Pacific’s presence in the U.S. lumber market will put pressure on other U.S. corporations to operate as cheaply as possible.” “The very reason that Louisiana- Pacific is operating in Mexico will dampen contract demands in the U.S. LP is on the leading edge of negative labour relations. Mr. Street says that Mexican work- ers will bear the cost of training and that those costs “are not so great as to bea detriment.” He says that training costs for skilled workers, even stretch- ed over a 10-15 year period, with low wage training, are achievable for the Mexican labour force. And as such, warns Street, the employer, through technological change, will always be able to de-skill a position. The banning of exports from state lands has largely been a result of the spotted owl controversy in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. While Oregon has implemented the ban and California is shortly about to follow, Washington State is promulgating administrative rules to follow suit. In supplying its Mexican subsid- iary, Louisiana-Pacific can easily go to private lands or undertake “third or fourth substitution switches” in selling its state logs to lomestic proc- essors and then acquire private tim- ber in swap deals for state timber, says Mr. Street. By doing so Louisi- ana-Pacific and others could circum- vent the state export bans. Companies such as Roseburg Lum- ber, currently up for sale, have sizea- ble private timber holdings in Oregon and California. A company such as Plum Creek in Washington State is also a likely candidate to supply a Mexican operations since it currently is exporting overseas from operations in the Olympic Peninsula and the Columbia River basin. 2 The AFL-CIO is currently working to oppose a North American free trade pact. It’s actions are mostly rear- P guard in nature as the awareness "9 the whole issue is growing. 3 This “thumb in the dike” approach will continue throughout next year with lobbying efforts in the Senate and House of Representatives, while the labour movement in the U.S. mobi- lizes itself into a larger coalition with other organizations. _ Mr. Street says the labour and coali- tion movement in Canada will be an important part of that fight back and effort to raise public awareness.